Romp

Shrug off that fur, have a cocktail and dish the dirt with “Fallen Angels,” Art Manke's irresistible production of a rarely seen Noel Coward comedy, now at the Pasadena Playhouse. Given the play's fascination with female pleasure, it's hard to believe this delicious 1925 romp hasn't been revived more often. Startlingly modern, the play makes the hedonism in "Fifty Shades of Grey" seem so, well, earnest. After five years of marriage, passion is a fond memory for Londoners Julia and Fred Sterroll (Pamela J. Gray and Mike Ryan)

MESA, Ariz. -- In his first competition since coming out of retirement, Michael Phelps finished second to Ryan Lochte in the 100-meter butterfly at a Grand Prix event Thursday evening. The longtime rivals provided their sport with a fast, close race before a sold-out crowd and reporters from around the world. Lochte finished in 51.93 seconds, the second fastest time in the event this year. Phelps was .2 seconds behind. An upbeat Lochte said that, as they swam neck-and-neck at the turn, he peeked over at Phelps and "almost started smiling.

The demonic potential in even the most innocuous-looking child's doll should come as no surprise to parents who've felt its eerie supernatural impact on their wallets. But, far more sinister manifestations await in "Sukie and Sue: Their Story," composer Michael John LaChiusa's modest but amusing detour into non-musical playwriting. Continuing his longtime affiliation with Hollywood's The Blank Theatre, LaChiusa's new horror-comedy's darkly sardonic sensibilities are very much in alignment with his edgy musicals “Marie Christine” and “The Wild Party.” Consequently, expect more snarky snaps than outright belly laughs when a ragdoll possessed by an evil spirit shatters the narcissistic complacency of stoners Sukie (Lindsey Broad)

Here are five takeaways from the Clippers' 138-98 victory over the Golden State Warriors on Monday night at Staples Center in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series that evened the series at one game apiece heading into Game 3 on Thursday at Oracle Arena in Oakland: 1. If Blake Griffin keeps playing like this, the series is over. The Clippers forward unfurled the inverse of his Game 1 clunker, scoring 35 points in only 29 minutes with stunning efficiency. He made 13 of 17 shots, scoring in a variety of ways - backing down overmatched defenders for layups, muscling in for tip-ins, rising for jumpers, making his free throws and yes, throwing down a few dunks.

Externals apart, the battle of the sexes hasn't changed much since Mark Twain wrote his "Extracts From Adam's Diary" in 1893 (published in 1904, with "Eve's Diary" following in 1906). This fracas enlivens "The Adam and Eve Show." Writer-director Ron Petronicolos' peek at history's first couple is a howling riff on Genesis, Twain and OutKast, often at once.

“The Fool and the Red Queen,” a world premiere at the Lounge Theatre, is actually two distinct plays - the sixth and seventh offerings in Murray Mednick's “Gary Plays,” which feature Mednick's recurring character of Gary, a hapless actor involved in sundry surreal exploits. In the first act, Gary auditions for Chauncey and Rondell (Jack Kehler and Gray Palmer), dubious film producers of an exquisitely pretentious stripe. After much comically circular dialogue, Gary (John Diehl)

at Chicago 17, Pittsburgh 2: Derrek Lee matched a career high with seven runs batted in and capped a 10-run burst in the second inning. Philadelphia 3, at Atlanta 2: Ryan Howard led off the ninth inning with a home run. at St. Louis 9, San Diego 2: Adam Wainwright homered and joined Boston's Josh Beckett as the only 14-game winners in the majors. at New York 3, San Francisco 0: Bobby Parnell pitched six innings in his second major league start.

As Disney's first animated film to arrive in theaters since "Frozen," "The Pirate Fairy" will and should be scrutinized to see whether the refreshing feminism in the Oscar-nominated fairy tale represents a fluke or a new direction for the studio. So far, so muddled. "The Pirate Fairy" features an enormously likable protagonist in Zarina (voiced by Christina Hendricks), the would-be Marie Curie of pixie dust, if only her scientific curiosity were encouraged. When her forbidden experiments go awry, Zarina is forced into exile.

November 23, 2013 | By Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times Television Critic

Leveraging the wildly anticipated, international, multimedia debut of the "Doctor Who" anniversary special, BBC America is smartly following "The Day of the Doctor" with the premiere Saturday of "Atlantis. " The new fantasy-action-adventure series is a crazy, narratively exasperating yet still quite appealing mess of Greek mythology, early mathematics (Pythagoras is a character) and vague Mediterranean history. It nicely capitalizes on the sly humor of icon tweakage, the growing popularity of genre heroes and the success of the Percy Jackson series.

The love triangle gets an evolutionary update in Tom Tykwer's romance "3" (Drei), a sensuous intellectual romp whose strong casting makes it involving, even when sentimentality creeps into the story or ideas present themselves in boldface. Hanna and Simon are a 40-ish Berlin couple, together 20 years and both with successful careers on the cultural cutting edge. She hosts a highbrow talk show — the kind not seen on American television in decades — and he's an "art engineer," translating sculptors' visions into large-scale installations.

Early in his new history of humanity's embrace of nuclear energy and radiation, Craig Nelson writes about the impoverished 19-year-old Manya Sklowdowska and her lover, Casimir Zorawski, the eldest child in a wealthy Polish farming family for whom she worked as a nanny. His parents rejected the girl as below their station. The college-student son acquiesced, married someone else and went on to become a "well-regarded mathematician in Poland. " The jilted Manya became Marie Curie. The story of the star-crossed lovers and the unforeseen consequences of a single decision dovetail nicely with the sweep of our engagement with nuclear science.

The Korean import "Venus Talk" starts off as a light and lively look at the sex lives of 40ish female friends before eventually giving way to something deeper and more thoughtful. It's an enjoyable, often amusing, occasionally touching ride that may not break much new ground but still satisfies its modest goals. The three "Venusians" here each find themselves at a romantic crossroads early in the film. Hae-Young (Jo Min-soo), a single mother and cafe owner, wants the security of marriage from her wedding-averse carpenter boyfriend (Lee Geung-young)

As Disney's first animated film to arrive in theaters since "Frozen," "The Pirate Fairy" will and should be scrutinized to see whether the refreshing feminism in the Oscar-nominated fairy tale represents a fluke or a new direction for the studio. So far, so muddled. "The Pirate Fairy" features an enormously likable protagonist in Zarina (voiced by Christina Hendricks), the would-be Marie Curie of pixie dust, if only her scientific curiosity were encouraged. When her forbidden experiments go awry, Zarina is forced into exile.

SOCHI, Russia - While Teemu Selanne pumped his fists in joy, members of the U.S. men's hockey team hung their heads in embarrassment. Selanne and his Finnish teammates lingered to pose for photographs with their Olympic bronze medals as the U.S. players hurried out of the Bolshoy Ice Dome on Saturday after their 5-0 loss and fourth-place finish, fleeing a nightmare of their own making. One day after the Finns' semifinal loss to Sweden - a few hours before the U.S. was defeated by Canada - Selanne responded the right way to Olympic-sized disappointment.

Right at the start of Sarah Ruhl's "Passion Play," now at the Odyssey Theatre, a religious crisis of the kind Freud would have appreciated erupts. The actress playing Mary in the town's religious pageant secretly has the hots for the young hunk playing Jesus. How can she be expected to act maternal - never mind holy - when he's strutting around so temptingly in a loin cloth that keeps slipping? The frolicsome boldness of Ruhl's imagination is on cheeky display in this Odyssey Theatre Ensemble-Evidence Room co-production directed by Bart DeLorenzo.

November 23, 2013 | By Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times Television Critic

Leveraging the wildly anticipated, international, multimedia debut of the "Doctor Who" anniversary special, BBC America is smartly following "The Day of the Doctor" with the premiere Saturday of "Atlantis. " The new fantasy-action-adventure series is a crazy, narratively exasperating yet still quite appealing mess of Greek mythology, early mathematics (Pythagoras is a character) and vague Mediterranean history. It nicely capitalizes on the sly humor of icon tweakage, the growing popularity of genre heroes and the success of the Percy Jackson series.

"After hearing all week about his numbers this and his numbers that, we wanted to put a number on them." Will Allen, New York cornerback, who had one of the Giants' two interceptions of Duante Culpepper in a 43-13 romp Sunday.

The thing is, the desert is like a giant sandlot without boundaries and that's why people play in it. They have to. It beckons them, reawakens that childhood yearning, the one that knows joy is so very, very important. And the endless, gritty waves of the Imperial Sand Dunes practically beg for someone to romp through them. So they come by the thousands from all over the world to tiny Glamis, at the southeastern corner of California.

A black bear spotted in a tree at a Granada Hills school Tuesday barreled from yard to yard, took a breather on the the front steps of a church, and scurried onto a golf course past onlookers as it evaded capture. The bear's odyssey began about 7 a.m. after it was spotted at the North Valley Charter Academy campus on Rinaldi Street. The bear climbed a tree at the rear of the campus, where it remained as students were escorted inside the school. The chase began after a low-flying helicopter spooked the bear out of the tree.